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== Biography == | == Biography == | ||
=== Early life ( | === Early life (1893–1910) === | ||
Mao Zedong was born on 26 December 1893 in a middle [[Peasantry|peasant]] family in Shaoshan Valley, modern day Xiangtan County of Hunan Province, under the reign of Qing Dynasty Emperor Guangxu.<ref name=":2">{{Citation|author=Pang Xianzhi and Jin Chongji|year=2011|title=Mao Zedong, a Biography. Volume 1. 1893–1949|title-url=https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Library:Mao_Zedong,_a_Biography._Volume_1._1893%E2%80%931949|chapter=Leaving Home|chapter-url=https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Library:Mao_Zedong,_a_Biography._Volume_1._1893%E2%80%931949#Leaving_Home|publisher=CCCPC Party Literature Research Office, Translated by Foreign Languages Press|volume=1}}</ref><ref>[https://baike.baidu.com/reference/113835/47b3UXeOlls2dqtF1RBQ9euk5nvQ6S5grjQRBfjOFkWIPa1ltVabtooqj1XMsHEO68MSM1QOJ1SrB8XHur3CBi5Ue5vS3PMNKQ December 26: Mao Zedong was born in Shaoshanchong, Xiangtan, Hunan] - Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China.</ref> He was born as the third child of Mao Yichang and Wen Suqin, and the first child to survive infancy. From the age of six, Mao worked on his father's land and at a later age served as the family account keeper, performing farm work alongside the laborers hired by his father. Mao Zedong learned from his own experiences the hardships that the Peasantry suffered, as Mao Yinchang enforced a harsh work discipline on Mao Zedong and his younger brothers, even beating them. Such a life ingrained in Mao a rebellious spirit and good work discipline.<ref name=":2" /> | Mao Zedong was born on 26 December 1893 in a middle [[Peasantry|peasant]] family in Shaoshan Valley, modern day Xiangtan County of Hunan Province, under the reign of Qing Dynasty Emperor Guangxu.<ref name=":2">{{Citation|author=Pang Xianzhi and Jin Chongji|year=2011|title=Mao Zedong, a Biography. Volume 1. 1893–1949|title-url=https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Library:Mao_Zedong,_a_Biography._Volume_1._1893%E2%80%931949|chapter=Leaving Home|chapter-url=https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Library:Mao_Zedong,_a_Biography._Volume_1._1893%E2%80%931949#Leaving_Home|publisher=CCCPC Party Literature Research Office, Translated by Foreign Languages Press|volume=1}}</ref><ref>[https://baike.baidu.com/reference/113835/47b3UXeOlls2dqtF1RBQ9euk5nvQ6S5grjQRBfjOFkWIPa1ltVabtooqj1XMsHEO68MSM1QOJ1SrB8XHur3CBi5Ue5vS3PMNKQ December 26: Mao Zedong was born in Shaoshanchong, Xiangtan, Hunan] - Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China.</ref> He was born as the third child of Mao Yichang and Wen Suqin, and the first child to survive infancy. From the age of six, Mao worked on his father's land and at a later age served as the family account keeper, performing farm work alongside the laborers hired by his father. Mao Zedong learned from his own experiences the hardships that the Peasantry suffered, as Mao Yinchang enforced a harsh work discipline on Mao Zedong and his younger brothers, even beating them. Such a life ingrained in Mao a rebellious spirit and good work discipline.<ref name=":2" /> | ||
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In 1911, famine struck Shaoshan Valley, and the hungry peasants organized themselves and began seizing food from the houses of landlords and delivery of merchants, including from Mao Yunchang. Mao Zedong did not sympathize with his father but as a result of his then reformist mindset, felt that the peasants had went about it wrongly.<ref name=":2" /> | In 1911, famine struck Shaoshan Valley, and the hungry peasants organized themselves and began seizing food from the houses of landlords and delivery of merchants, including from Mao Yunchang. Mao Zedong did not sympathize with his father but as a result of his then reformist mindset, felt that the peasants had went about it wrongly.<ref name=":2" /> | ||
=== Political beginnings (1911–1920) === | |||
Owing to the isolation of his village, Mao's early political development was highly influenced by Reformist thought, like those of his teacher, Li Shuqing, whom he depended on greatly for developments in wider China like the constitutional reform attempt of the crumbling Qing Dynasty. At the age of 17, filled with the need to continue his studies outside his secluded village and hearing that Dongshan School taught modern knowledge, Mao convinced family members to persuade his father to approve of the move. Leaving the environs of Shaoshan Valley for the first time.<ref name=":2" /> | Owing to the isolation of his village, Mao's early political development was highly influenced by Reformist thought, like those of his teacher, Li Shuqing, whom he depended on greatly for developments in wider China like the constitutional reform attempt of the crumbling Qing Dynasty. At the age of 17, filled with the need to continue his studies outside his secluded village and hearing that Dongshan School taught modern knowledge, Mao convinced family members to persuade his father to approve of the move. Leaving the environs of Shaoshan Valley for the first time.<ref name=":2" /> | ||
Dongshan Higher Primary School in Xiangxiang County, Hunan Province, taught classical education but also subjects such as Natural Sciences, Geography and the English. It was at the school that Mao became informed that both the Guangxu Emperor and Empress Dowager Cixi had been dead for years and the Xuantong Emperor having been enthroned for two years. Hunan Province was a stronghold of reformist thought and their publications were not outlawed unlike more revolutionary outlets, leading Mao to be influenced by the reformist thoughts of Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao, who advocated for a Constitutional Monarchy.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":0">[https://baike.baidu.com/reference/113835/45c61_sYsjwuFPa1aDDw8lcZjnk3omFT8e1bvav0Kglvx1_WFxZpF-EGCPAwByZusnJrNqR7WCn7nNWeNlb-PDQw3lNdl6gFAXixsnC1_4CqCQ9f-nnHKW0L Chronology of Mao Zedong's Life (1893-1925) Party History Channel] - People's Daily Online </ref> He was not aware of [[Sun Yat-sen]]’s [[Revolution|Revolutionary]] conceptions of establishing a [[Bourgeois democracy|Bourgeois Democracy]] in place of the old order, which had in fact became the dominant political trend across the country.<ref name=":2" /> | Dongshan Higher Primary School in Xiangxiang County, Hunan Province, taught classical education but also subjects such as Natural Sciences, Geography and the English. It was at the school that Mao became informed that both the Guangxu Emperor and Empress Dowager Cixi had been dead for years and the Xuantong Emperor having been enthroned for two years. Hunan Province was a stronghold of reformist thought and their publications were not outlawed unlike more revolutionary outlets, leading Mao to be influenced by the reformist thoughts of Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao, who advocated for a Constitutional Monarchy.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":0">[https://baike.baidu.com/reference/113835/45c61_sYsjwuFPa1aDDw8lcZjnk3omFT8e1bvav0Kglvx1_WFxZpF-EGCPAwByZusnJrNqR7WCn7nNWeNlb-PDQw3lNdl6gFAXixsnC1_4CqCQ9f-nnHKW0L Chronology of Mao Zedong's Life (1893-1925) Party History Channel] - People's Daily Online </ref> He was not aware of [[Sun Yat-sen]]’s [[Revolution|Revolutionary]] conceptions of establishing a [[Bourgeois democracy|Bourgeois Democracy]] in place of the old order, which had in fact became the dominant political trend across the country.<ref name=":2" /> | ||
After coming in possession of an edition of ''Xinmin congbao'' (New People’s Miscellany), the journal edited and published by Liang Qichao, Mao made his earliest political commentary. Advocating for a Monarchy with laws written by the people and Monarch favored with public approval, as opposed to a Monarchy where the laws are written by the Monarch and who enjoys no public support. With Britain and Japan as the former while China fell under the latter. Young Mao also put emphasis on great personalities, believing that China should strive to create individuals learned from Western history.<ref name=":2" /> | After coming in possession of an edition of ''Xinmin congbao'' (New People’s Miscellany), the journal edited and published by Liang Qichao, Mao made his earliest political commentary. Advocating for a Monarchy with laws written by the people and Monarch favored with public approval, as opposed to a Monarchy where the laws are written by the Monarch and who enjoys no public support. With Britain and Japan as the former while China fell under the latter. Young Mao also put emphasis on great personalities, believing that China should strive to create individuals learned from Western history.<ref name=":2" /> | ||
'''1911''' | |||
In the spring of 1911, due to Mao's excellence in learning, his teacher, He Langang, took Mao with him to the Provincial Xiangxiang Middle School in Changsha, capital of Hunan Province. On the eve of the Bourgeois Democratic 1911 Revolution, Changsha was a hub of the Province's revolutionary activity, with even the local military forces aligning with the revolutionaries. Changsha was Mao's, then 18, first encounter with revolutionary thought, becoming a dedicated reader of the revolutionary publication ''Minli bao'' (People’s Journal). Expanding his world and political view greatly.<ref name=":2" /> Far from the Imperial Reformist he had been, Mao had become a fervent Republican and lead his fellow students in act of disobedience against Imperial laws, by cutting the legally mandated queue haircuts. News of the Guangzhou Uprising in 27 April 1911 shook the whole of China, including Hunan, where students such as Mao were driven into excitement. It led Mao to write an article supporting Sun Yat-sen, proposing that the revolutionary leader be welcomed home to serve as President but in a display of his still developing political consciousness, advocated also that the Imperial reformist Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao be in the same government. <ref name=":2" /><ref name=":0" /> | In the spring of 1911, due to Mao's excellence in learning, his teacher, He Langang, took Mao with him to the Provincial Xiangxiang Middle School in Changsha, capital of Hunan Province. On the eve of the Bourgeois Democratic 1911 Revolution, Changsha was a hub of the Province's revolutionary activity, with even the local military forces aligning with the revolutionaries. Changsha was Mao's, then 18, first encounter with revolutionary thought, becoming a dedicated reader of the revolutionary publication ''Minli bao'' (People’s Journal). Expanding his world and political view greatly.<ref name=":2" /> Far from the Imperial Reformist he had been, Mao had become a fervent Republican and lead his fellow students in act of disobedience against Imperial laws, by cutting the legally mandated queue haircuts. News of the Guangzhou Uprising in 27 April 1911 shook the whole of China, including Hunan, where students such as Mao were driven into excitement. It led Mao to write an article supporting Sun Yat-sen, proposing that the revolutionary leader be welcomed home to serve as President but in a display of his still developing political consciousness, advocated also that the Imperial reformist Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao be in the same government. <ref name=":2" /><ref name=":0" /> | ||
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During his time in the army, Mao would receive military training and a salary, latter of which he would use to purchase newspapers, journals and books to keep apace of political developments across China. It was while reading an article in the ''Xianghan xinwen'' (Xianghan News), that Mao would first encounter the term 'socialism'. The article itself had only been advocating reformism but Mao would become interested in the concept, reaching out to friends and acquaintances for their thoughts. Mao only served in the army for little over half a year since in little over two months after the Wuchang Uprising, majority of China had declared independence from the tottering Qing Dynasty and a peace process began between the Revolutionaries and the Qing. Resulting in a Republic being declared and the last Qing emperor forced into abdication. The conciliationist attitude of the revolutionaries unfortunately resulted in Yuan Shikai, a Qing official and general, becoming provisional president of the new Republic rather than Sun Yat-sen.<ref name=":2" /> | During his time in the army, Mao would receive military training and a salary, latter of which he would use to purchase newspapers, journals and books to keep apace of political developments across China. It was while reading an article in the ''Xianghan xinwen'' (Xianghan News), that Mao would first encounter the term 'socialism'. The article itself had only been advocating reformism but Mao would become interested in the concept, reaching out to friends and acquaintances for their thoughts. Mao only served in the army for little over half a year since in little over two months after the Wuchang Uprising, majority of China had declared independence from the tottering Qing Dynasty and a peace process began between the Revolutionaries and the Qing. Resulting in a Republic being declared and the last Qing emperor forced into abdication. The conciliationist attitude of the revolutionaries unfortunately resulted in Yuan Shikai, a Qing official and general, becoming provisional president of the new Republic rather than Sun Yat-sen.<ref name=":2" /> | ||
After leaving the army, Mao resumed his quest for knowledge. He applied for entrance examination of the police academy, the soap-making technical school, the politics and law institute, and the public high school before entering the Hunan Provincial Senior Middle School for a short time. Chafing at the inflexible rules and limited curriculum, Mao left the school and opted for self-study, lodging at the Xiangxiang Guild Hall and securing study material, like the political and scientific works of the West, from the Provincial Library.<ref name=":2" /> Mao spent half a year studying in such a manner before circumstances changed, with his father refusing to financially support his unorthodox learning methods and | After leaving the army, Mao resumed his quest for knowledge. He applied for entrance examination of the police academy, the soap-making technical school, the politics and law institute, and the public high school before entering the Hunan Provincial Senior Middle School for a short time. Chafing at the inflexible rules and limited curriculum, Mao left the school and opted for self-study, lodging at the Xiangxiang Guild Hall and securing study material, like the political and scientific works of the West, from the Provincial Library.<ref name=":2" /> Mao spent half a year studying in such a manner before circumstances changed, with his father refusing to financially support his unorthodox learning methods and Xiangxiang Guild Hall coming to host newly disbanded army men, who often devolved to fist fighting, and rendering the Guild Hall impossible to live in any longer.<ref name=":2" /> | ||
'''1913''' | |||
Mao, now 20, resolved to return to school and continue his studies that way when he became aware of the Hunan Provincial Fourth Teachers’ Training College offering free education, cheap housing and a teaching post for graduates. Mao passed the entrance examination and enrolled into the Training College's five year program. The Fourth Teacher's College was subsequently merged with the First, delaying Mao's graduation by several months.<ref name=":3" /> | Mao, now 20, resolved to return to school and continue his studies that way when he became aware of the Hunan Provincial Fourth Teachers’ Training College offering free education, cheap housing and a teaching post for graduates. Mao passed the entrance examination and enrolled into the Training College's five year program. The Fourth Teacher's College was subsequently merged with the First, delaying Mao's graduation by several months.<ref name=":3" /> | ||
The First Teachers College, also known as Hunan Provincial Normal School, was a storied institution, whose history and incarnations stretched back to the 7th century CE, which endeavored to mold its students into ideal people and whose constitution advocated for up-to-date educational approach. The faculty were noted for their progressive outlook and great knowledge and during Mao's time, many progressive students of all ages but especially the young enrolled there. Earning the School the reputation of being the cradle of progressive youth. | The First Teachers College, also known as Hunan Provincial Normal School, was a storied institution, whose history and incarnations stretched back to the 7th century CE, which endeavored to mold its students into ideal people and whose constitution advocated for up-to-date educational approach. The faculty were noted for their progressive outlook and great knowledge and during Mao's time, many progressive students of all ages but especially the young enrolled there. Earning the School the reputation of being the cradle of progressive youth. It was at the College that Mao further developed his political consciousness and became friends with link-minded people <ref name=":3">{{Citation|author=Pang Xianzhi and Jin Chongji|year=2011|title=Mao Zedong, a Biography. Volume 1. 1893–1949|title-url=https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Library:Mao_Zedong,_a_Biography._Volume_1._1893%E2%80%931949|chapter=The College Student|chapter-url=https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Library:Mao_Zedong,_a_Biography._Volume_1._1893%E2%80%931949#The_College_Student|publisher=CCCPC Party Literature Research Office, Translated by Foreign Languages Press|volume=1}}</ref> | ||
It was at the College that Mao further developed his political consciousness and became friends with | |||
'''1914''' | |||
In autumn, he was enrolled in the eighth undergraduate class of Hunan Provincial First Normal School. While in school, under the influence of Yang Changji and other progressive teachers, he became an enthusiastic reader of "New Youth" magazine and admired Chen Duxiu and Hu Shi. | |||
'''1918''' | '''1918''' |